


The Kapitan and The Soldier

by AndInThoseMoments



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers Friendship, Bucky Barnes Feels, Gen, Hydra (Marvel), Steve is Hydra
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2014-10-27
Packaged: 2018-02-22 21:22:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2522228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndInThoseMoments/pseuds/AndInThoseMoments
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Kapitan has been working for Hydra for seventy years.  In that time, he and the Soldier have started to learn to talk.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Kapitan and The Soldier

Seventy years. He’d heard that once from a new recruit that had stared at him wide eyed, gasping as he looked him up and down. Seventy years felt far too long, but he couldn’t be certain. The man who had once been his mirror, at least he thought it was that man, but maybe that was a distortion, that man was old. He hadn’t seen the recruit again.

The Kapitan stood awkwardly for inspection, the scientists running their hands over his body, checking pulse, reflexes, breathing. It couldn’t have been seventy years he was here. He couldn’t remember when he had volunteered, but not that long ago. He wasn’t old enough. They let him go, and he threw a salute at the man facing him. Rumlow this time. He listened to the orders and he obeyed. Obedience was important. Order through pain. That, he knew. He knew the cost of failure. He also knew the rewards of success.

He wasn’t sure when they had started their game. It was dangerous, had sent him to the chair more times than he could count, more times than he had remembered, but it worked. The game was smart. They had to be smart.

A reward might just be a minute, and more often than not that minute was lost. What mattered was getting to remember. It got tiring, retraining assets in skills every time. Be it the progress of a mission, or the newest trick, occasionally the programming would be rewritten, so they would recall. All they had to do was think as they were taught to remember, and the game could be played.

A few years back Soldat had played badly, been caught murmuring to himself, and all his memories, even the forced ones, had been taken. For a month he had been useless, in a lab, being retaught how to speak, how to use a gun. But he had learned and been repaired, and now he worked as well as he ever had. The Kapitan and he could play.

Assets. Assets were things, not people, and if they had been good they could spend time together. They would sit side by side on a bench, if there was the slightest chance they were watched, but their hands would rest together and they would spell out words. Words they didn’t really remember, but which mattered. That was part of the game. To think really hard of the other, then spell out the word, and get the two taps back from the other’s fingertip to say they remembered it.

B. U. C. K. Y. The Kapitan tapped out insistently, staring blankly at the wall ahead, before gazing down at the red star on black leather at his chest, the mirror of Soldat’s arm. Kapitan didn’t know what Bucky was. Just that it was important. More important than any other word in the game. Two taps.

S. T. E. V. E. Came the reply. The Kapitan frowned, tried to place it. It sounded familiar. Almost as important as Bucky. He remembered Soldat being taller, and tapped back twice. 

S. H. I. E. L. D. Soldat tapped out, and the Kapitan hesitated. He knew the name of their enemy, but this was different. There had been a weight on his arm, a flash of blue and red. Two more taps.

The Kapitan knew the door, the security, the route out. They both did. If this got caught, they would both get wiped fully, be in agony, probably go back to the punishment cells. He took a breath.

E. S. C. A. P. E.

For too long, nothing happened. He waited for sirens, for alarms, for shots, but nothing came. Then Soldat moved, tapping twice. As one, they stood.


End file.
